Thursday, March 11th, 2010

[NOTE: This post is an updated copy of the post I made last year, which was a copy of the post from 2008, which had tons of comments relating to how Fairfax County seemed to change its assessment forumulas, flipping more of people’s value from their house to their land.]

In 1999, we bought the house at $141K.
In 2000, we were assessed at $142K.
In 2001, this grew by 3.5% to $147K.
In 2002, this grew by 39% to $205K.
In 2003, this grew by 3% to $211K.
In 2004, this grew by 24% to $261K.
In 2005, this grew by 34% to $349K.
In 2006, this grew by 13% to $395K*.
In 2007, this grew by 3% to $406K (peak).
In 2008, this dropped by 7% to $375K*.
In 2009, this dropped by 3% to $364K.
In 2010, this dropped by 18% to $298K. Ouch. Biggest loss yet..

We’re 37% down from our peak, but it’s still worth 2.2X more than we owe on the mortgage ($135K), meaning we’re still $163K ahead.

Like this:

Another conspiracy theory come true? It's been known for quite some time that the CIA dosed various sets of people with LSD (among other things). Isn't Uncle Sam nice? Using our tax dollars to use us as unwitting guinea pigs?

Well, in this case, it wasn't us, but the French. So I guess that's okay? haha. Kidding!

20 years after Bush #1 purposely left Gulf War #1 unfinished, our government is still not acknowledging the sickness and damage taken on by those who thought that serving our country was the right thing to do. They deserve better than for the government and veteran's administration to totally ignore them.

With scientists on the victims' sides, how much longer can our government sit in denial? Surely, they are hoping many of these veterans will die off, so that once they acknowledge it, it doesn't cost them as much.

I am reminded of the Japanese-Americans that we put into concentration camps. We did not acknowledge that they deserved any reparations until most of them were dead. That saved Uncle Sam a pretty penny, which he turned around and spent on future wars.

175,000 of the people most loyal to our government are suffering due to our government's actions and negligence. Such hypocracy — how does Uncle Sam manage to find more soldiers when he treats them like this?

This is a well-supported program. I asked a question that had been bugging me for well over a year, and got a response in 30 minutes. Hopefully my problems will now go away, and the quest for 1080p will not suffer any further interruptions.

You will be missed, 24. But you've run your course, and it might be good to quit while you're ahead. A couple seasons weren't as good, but these last 2 have helped make up for that. However, there is definitely a lot of repetition in plot points, and unlike with comedy, repetitive drama can grow old.